“To a degree, I would say people haven’t noticed how well I’ve been
doing, but it just takes time,” Lentz told the Sherdog
Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show. “If it takes a little longer
for people to realize that one day I’m going to be a contender and
one day I’ll be right up there at the top, that’s fine with
me.”

Despite his success, Lentz has received some criticism for not
finishing fights. In response, he points to the level of his
opponents.

“A lot of the not finishing fights has to do with number one, you
get into the UFC, it’s a different level,” Lentz said. “… If you
look at the guys I’ve fought, if you add them all together, they
literally have been finished like a handful of times, and that was
early in their careers. It’s not like I was put against easy people
or I was getting first-time UFC guys. I was getting put in there
with really good, really talented guys, and it took me a little
while to adjust to that level.”

Lentz did get a finish in his most recent bout, submitting Waylon Lowe
with a guillotine at UFC Fight Night 24. He predicts another finish
against Bocek.

“I think I’m going to stop Mark Bocek,” Lentz said. “That’s another
reason I think I’m going to start getting on the pay-per-view. I
think we’re going to go in there and I think within a round or two,
I’m going to stop him.”

At this point in his climb up the lightweight ranks, it’s important
to Lentz that his fights get featured more often. Stopping a
quality opponent like Bocek could make that happen.

“I think the main thing that beating Mark Bocek does is it’s
another veteran that I’m going to beat,” Lentz said. “It’s someone
that’s been around a long time, that has lots of skills, that isn’t
easy to beat, and I’m going to beat him, and then that’s going to
raise me up to that level to where it’s time to always put me on
the pay-per-views.”

Lentz feels he turned some fans in his favor with his victory over
Lowe, and he believes many more will soon follow. Of course, some
may be holding a grudge against him for the debatable decision he
won over Tyson
Griffin last November, but Lentz thinks he’ll earn their
support too eventually.

“Once I’m on the pay-per-views and fans start seeing me more and
more, all the bad taste that people have acquired from the one
fight, whether they think I didn’t beat Tyson [Griffin] or
whatever, all that’s going to go away,” he said. “People are going
to start really realizing that I belong in the hunt for the
title.”